The
story begins in 1978 when we moved to Calgary, Alberta. My
heart was filled with great sadness as I left my family in
Ontario.

Our home looked
on to what appeared to me – a barren
hill – no large trees adorned this hill which was so
unfamiliar to me. Each day I would stand by my front window
staring out on the hill with tears flowing down my cheeks.
One day I noticed that on top of the hill were three electrical
poles. I was taken a back for the image I was looking at
was the one so etched in my mind since childhood – three
crosses on Calvary (Calgary).

After that
awareness came to me, no longer could I look out the window
without
bringing to mind – Christ, Crosses,
Calvary.

Good Friday was important to me even as a child. Always
wondering will the sky cloud over and rain at 3pm, the time
Christ died on the cross. So each Good Friday I carried on
the tradition as I looked out the window onto the hill.

Soon I began to walk on the hill. Whenever I was by what
now became the crosses in my imagination, I would say a prayer
and touch the middle cross.

This was the beginning days of Nose Hill becoming a Spiritual
Sanctuary for me.

On April 2, 1995, there was a grass fire on the hill. In
springtime it is not uncommon to have a few small grass fires.
This was different. This fire was a blazing spectacle like
we had never seen before. People were lined up along 14th
Street to watch the enormous fire burn out of control as
the helicopters and firefighters did their best to contain
it.

The next morning I went for a walk, the smell of smoke lingering
in the air, fire embers still burning and the ground black
as charcoal. It felt like a land ravaged by war.

As the days and weeks past, I began to notice the new growth
that poked through the charred black ground. I could not
help but be in awe of the unstoppable force of Life and how
Life prevailed after what appeared to be such a force of
destruction.

How I was able
to understand the symbol of the Phoenix on such a deeper
level as I walked
through the transformative
cycle – dried dead grass, fire, ashes, rebirth ! Everything
was more beautiful than before the fire, partly because of
nutrients from the ashes.

One day I became aware that the three crosses were burned
down and they were never replaced.

What the symbolized for me was now is the time for each
of us to take responsibility to do our best to embody the
consciousness of Love that Christ planted on the earth two
thousand years ago as we exit the Piscean Age and enter into
the Aquarian Age.